Method and communications arrangement for operating a communications connection

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method and a communications arrangement for operating a communications connection between a communications terminal device (KE 1 ) associated with a first participant and at least one first terminal device (KE 2 ) associated with a second participant. For a process running on a second terminal device (RE 1 ) integrating with a first communications terminal device (KE 1 ) to be operated by the first participant, said process being free of functions for controlling the communications connection, at least one piece of information that is reproducible on a terminal device is extracted from a process-produced output (P 1 ) to the second terminal device (RE 1 ). Further, upon initiation of the communications connection between the communications terminal device (KE 1 ) and the first terminal device (KE 2 ), the reproducible information is transmitted to at one of the least one terminal devices (KE 2 , RE 2 ) associated with the second participant.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the United States national phase under 35 U.S.C.§371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/EP2007/008210, filed onSep. 20, 2007. That application is incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and communicationsarrangements for operating a communications connection.

2. Background of the Art

During the everyday work life of office employees within a company,telephone connections, on the one hand, and email connections, on theother, are used today in equal measure for communicating with otherparticipants, particularly within the same company. Frequently, there isa process in which an email communication has first occurred and, basedupon this communication, possibly because some discussed items were notsubsequently clarified, a telephone connection is initiated by one ofthe email participants to one of the other email participants. It isfrequently ineffective for the calling participant to first have toexplain the context of why he is calling to the called participant,i.e., that he frequently verbally repeats portions of the email so thatthe other participant recognizes which problem is being addressed. Undercertain circumstances, this can lead to a time-consuming exchange ofalready known information or, under other circumstances, also tomisunderstandings.

It would be helpful to perform telecommunications connections or otherreal-time communications connections more effectively.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention relate to methods for operating acommunications connection between a communications terminal deviceallocated to a first participant and at least one first terminal deviceallocated to a second participant. With these methods, for a processrunning on a second terminal device that interacts with a firstcommunications terminal device that is to be operated by the firstparticipant, said process being free of functions for controlling thecommunications connection, at least one piece of information that isreproducible on a terminal device is extracted by the output effected bythe process on the second terminal device. This output can be a text, agraphics image, or multimedia, and the reproducible informationcorresponds to a coded representation of such an output which is to beprocessed by terminal devices or communications terminal devices. In amethod according to the invention, upon initiation of the communicationsconnection between the communications terminal device and the firstterminal device, the reproducible information is transmitted to at leastone of the at least one terminal devices allocated to the secondparticipant.

Embodiments may be advantageous inasmuch as, by transmitting thereproducible information, information is conveyed to the secondparticipant that explains the context that caused the first participantto initiate the communications connection. In a simple example, thefirst participant can, for example, can have opened an email on adesktop computer as the second terminal device and, based upon thisemail, can place a call to the sender of the email. In such a case, atext from the opened content of the email, for example, the subject lineof the email, can be extracted and, upon initiation of the telephoneconnection to the second participant, i.e., to the sender of theoriginal email, this text, together with a possible signaling of thecommunications connection to a terminal device of the secondparticipant, is transmitted so that this text can be displayed to him onat least one of his allocated terminal devices.

If the display occurs already prior to the final relay of the connectionand thus already before the call is accepted when the call in initiatedtogether with an acoustical or optical signaling of the incoming call tothe called terminal device, then the called participant can, at thisearly stage, already see what the thematic content of the followingconversation will be. Consequently, following the relay of thecommunications connection, the first participant does not need to make adrawn-out verbal introduction in order to inform the second participantof the upcoming topic of the telephone conversation. Telephoneconversations can thereby be conducted more effectively and rapidly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a communications arrangement for implementing an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 2 shows various constructions for an output of a process accordingto an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As already explained, in the case of the communications connection, oneis dealing primarily with real-time connections, e.g., fortelecommunications or for multimedia communications. For thecommunications terminal device allocated to the first participant, oneis preferably dealing with a classic telephone terminal or a so-calledsoft client that provides telephone functions on a desktop computer. Thesame also applies to the first terminal device of the secondparticipant. The second terminal device of the first participant ispreferably a desktop computer of a company employee, which is eithercoupled with a telecommunications system, for example, by means of CTIcoupling (CTI: Computer Telephony Integration), or, if thecommunications terminal device is a soft client, is the second terminaldevice of the desktop computer itself on which the soft client runs. Thesecond terminal device, however, can also be any other type of computerdevice that can be coupled to a telephone network. For example, it isconceivable for the second terminal device to be a television with aninnovative user interface that makes it possible for the content of thetelevision screen or the textual information of the television signal,e.g., video text or an electronic program guide EPG, to be extracted andprovided in transmittable form as reproducible information.

The reproducible information is preferably a representation of a text,multimedia content, or a graphics image, shown preferably in a documentwindow of a user interface, which can be transmitted via a signalingconnection to a second terminal device. For texts, this would be, forexample, an ASCII code (ASCII: American Standard Code for InformationInterchange), and for graphics, a code in JPG (Joint PhotographicExperts Group), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), or PNG format (PNG:Portable Network Graphics). Depending upon the size, all of the contentcan hereby, if necessary, be compressed, so that a transmission ispossible without overloading the data or telephone lines.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, several terminal devicesthat have different functionalities can be allocated to the secondparticipant. In such a case, it can be advantageous to select one of theterminal devices in such a way that the particular terminal device thatis selected for the transmission and/or an output is specificallyconstructed or optimized for output of the reproducible information. Forexample, short textual information can be transmitted to a telephonewith display so that the output occurs there. A graphics image, on theother hand, should preferably be transmitted only to a terminal devicethat has the capacity of outputting this graphics image. This is not thecase for current conventional terminal devices that are used in companytelephone systems, therefore, in this case, a transmission to a desktopcomputer appears to make sense. It is assumed, however, thatgraphics-capable telephone devices will also be increasingly used infuture company networks, so that, in such cases, a graphics image canalso be transmitted to a telephone device.

The transmission of the reproducible information can occur, on the onehand, via a telecommunications network or, on the other hand, via a datanetwork. With a data network, one can be dealing, for example, with aTCP/IP-based LAN (TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol; LAN: Local Area Network), to which the desktop computers ofthe company employees are usually connected. Furthermore, in currentimplementations, telephones are also frequently connected to such datanetworks.

Preferably, when a transmission is made via a telecommunications networkor via a telephony protocol, the communications connection can be madevia a signaling connection between the first communications terminaldevice and the first terminal device of the second participant. In sucha case, the transmission of the reproducible information occurs withinthe context of the signaling connection, for example, in the D-channel(D: data) of an ISDN connection (ISDN: Integrated Services DigitalNetwork) or in corresponding signaling packages according to H.323 orSIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which are defined by the ITU-T(International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication StandardizingSector) or have been defined by the IETF (Internet Engineering TaskForce). Depending upon the size of the reproducible information, one canaccess existing protocol elements for the transmission, or new protocolelements that are to be introduced can be used. Preferably one canhereby be dealing with optional protocol elements, so that compatibilityto terminal devices that do not have such an output function is a given.

With the process according to the invention, which creates the output onthe second terminal device, in the case of a desktop computer, one canbe dealing with any kind of application that produces an output on ascreen. This means in particular an application that was not originallydeveloped for a communication via a telephone or multimedia connection.The application can, for example, be any type of office application, forexample, a word processing task, a spreadsheet, an email program, agraphics program, or any other type of other application that produces agraphics, textual, or multimedia output. Preferably, however, thereproducible information is not permanently programmed lettering in theapplication, frequently called labels, but rather information that hasbeen manually produced in some way by a user when operating the program.This information is understood to include, for example, in the case ofan email, the subject line or the content of an email. In the case of atext file, this is understood to include, for example, the content of atext file or the file name of the data file. This information does notnecessarily need to be editable or specified by the first participant,but rather, preferably, it is a content that was edited by some personin a workgroup, for example, even by the second participant, wherein theconcerned data can possibly have reached the first participant viatransmission by means of a data connection or email.

With an email application, for example, the subject line can beextracted from a display window of an email and transmitted asreproducible information to the first terminal device of the secondparticipant. It is thus possible for the second participant to alreadyreceive the displayed content of the subject line when a communicationsconnection is initiated, so that this person already knows the topic ofthe incoming call before accepting the call.

Since commonly used desktop computers are configured in such a way thatseveral processes can run more or less simultaneously and that severalapplications can occupy portions of the screen, and also that individualapplications, even though they have a graphics output, can be iconifiedand thus, though active, are not shown at a specific time on the screen,a method can be provided that determines which of the activeapplications is selected for the extraction of the reproducibleinformation. For example, this process can run in a way that selects theapplication in which the input focus, e.g., displayed by a blinkingprompt or by the display of a window in a different color, is currentlylocated and/or is located in the foreground of all displayed windows.

Potentially, a determination can also be made regarding whether certainareas of a screen have been selected by a mouse pointer or by othermeans, so that this selected area, preferred for extracting thereproducible information, can be used. If, for example, an attachment ofan email was selected or highlighted, then this attachment can be usedas reproducible information for the transmission.

In order to determine from which window the reproducible informationshould now be extracted, that process can be ascertained that was activeprecisely when the call triggered the communications connection. Thereproducible information is then extracted from this process.

Advantageously, in the case of a windows application on a desktopcomputer, the header of a window can also be extracted. This isespecially advantageous for browser applications in which the headernormally describes the displayed information in the browser window withshort keywords. Alternatively, the content of a displayed document canalso be recorded by structurally analyzing the document and subsequentlyextracting the reproducible information. With the example of a browserapplication, provision can thus be made to evaluate the definition ofthe HTML tag (HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language) H1 (which defines atitle of the highest structural level) of a Web site, and to assess itas reproducible information. Analogously, this is possible for alldocument types that have a clear organizational structure and is a givenfor all word processing or XML-based (Extensible Markup Language) filetypes.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the method according tothe invention can be inventively coupled to a call-forwarding function.For example, provision can be made for one to already have the option ofimplementing call forwarding prior to accepting a call and possiblyfollowing the display of the reproducible information on the terminaldevice of the second participant. Thus, already based on the displayedreproducible information, the second participant has the option todecide whether or not another person should preferably take the call, sothat, after taking the appropriate user action, he can forward theincoming call to this other employee.

Preferably, a rule-based system can hereby exist on the basis of whichthe second participant is offered a preferred forwarding location or acall is even forwarded automatically to another forwarding location. Forthis purpose, a set of rules can be defined that, based upon keywords orkey information extracted from the reproducible information, areevaluated for call forwarding to additional pre-configured terminaldevices. For example, the urgency of an incoming call can be recognizedbased upon keywords or reproducible information, so that, even if aparticipant is not at his desk telephone, an urgent call can beautomatically forwarded to his cell phone. A configuration ofappropriate rules can preferably be performed by the second participanthimself or by centrally specified rules for all participants.

Preferably, in addition to call forwarding, other performance featurescan also be activated based upon rules. For example, when the systemrecognizes that the call is based upon, or is the result of, an emailthat was addressed to several participants, a teleconference can bearranged for all of these participants. Furthermore, the methodaccording to the invention can also be implemented within the frameworkof the performance feature “call waiting”, so that while the secondparticipant is already engaged in an active conversation, when callwaiting occurs, the content of the reproducible information is alreadydisplayed, so that the second participant receives an indication ofwhether or not it would be advisable for him to break off the existingconnection and accept the incoming connection, i.e., in the wording ofthe claim, the communications connection, from the first participant.

In another embodiment of the method according to the invention,provision can be made for the reproducible information to be alteredaccording to the output options of the first terminal device. This can,for example, be a so-called text-to-speech conversion or a newlydeveloped graphics-to-text conversion, in which the essential content ofthe reproducible information is extracted and optimized for theappropriate output medium.

In another embodiment of the method, provision can be made for thereproducible information to be extracted only after starting the processof the first step to initiate the communications connection.Alternatively, provision can be made each time, already prior to thefirst action to initiate the communication, for an active window or forall running processes to be pre-determined and possibly for reproducibleinformation to be pre-extracted and kept in readiness for establishing acommunication. The latter alternative can then speed up theestablishment of a communications connection.

The aforementioned embodiments also apply analogously to acommunications arrangement according to further embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a communications arrangement forimplementing a method according to an embodiment of the invention. Thecommunications arrangement comprises a first communications terminaldevice CTD1 as the communications terminal device according to theinvention, which is coupled to a first branch exchange PBX1 by means ofa telephone circuitry TC. Furthermore, the first branch exchange PBX1has a computer-telephone integration coupling CTI1 to a computer deviceCD1 as the second terminal device according to the invention. Via acommunications network CN and the respective telephone circuitry TC, thefirst branch exchange PBX1 is also coupled with a second branch exchangePBX2, on which several communications terminal devices can be operated.As an example, one of these communications devices is shown with, thecommunications terminal device CTD2 as the first terminal deviceaccording to the invention. The coupling between the secondcommunications terminal device KE2 CTD2 and the second branch exchangePBX2 via a telephone circuitry TC is, in turn, indicated by a dottedline. Furthermore, the second branch exchange PBX2 also has a couplingto a computer network or to various computers. By way of example, one isshown the second computer-telephone integration coupling CTI2 with whicha coupling to the second computer device CD2 is made possible. Inaddition to the connection possibilities that were available up to nowonly for telephone connections, FIG. 1 uses dotted lines to indicate acircuitry between the two computer devices CD1 and CD2 via a localnetwork LAN.

The resident programs or background processes possibly necessary for thecomputer-telephone integration couplings CTI1, CT2, which run on therespective computer devices CD1, CD2, are not explained in more detailbelow. Nevertheless, it should be clear to an expert that the computerdevices CD1, CD2 must be prepared for the operation of connections intothe LAN or to the branch exchanges PBX1, PBX2.

A process running on the first computer device CD1 is shown in FIG. 1 byits output window, the process window P1. Output options for the secondcommunications terminal device CTD2 are shown on a display unit DISPthat can, for example, be implemented by a customary LC-Display (LC:liquid crystal). Another output option using the second computer deviceCD2 is indicated by a display window shown on a user interface of thesecond computer device CD2.

It is assumed that the first communications terminal device CTD1, aswell as the first computer device CD1, is operated by a company employeewho is called a first participant. Analogous to this, the secondcommunications terminal device CTD2 and the second computer device CD2are operated by a second participant.

The starting point for the method described below is that thecommunications terminal devices CTD1 and CTD2 are both in idle mode andthat the process window P1 is shown on the first computer device CD1. Asan example, it is assumed that the process window P1 is an output of areceived email, including the usual components of such a window, forexample, an output for the recipient address, the sending address, thesubject line, and the content of the actual message.

It is also assumed that, by reading the output shown in the processwindow P1, the first participant will know if he would like to leave thesecond participant a message or prefer to send him an inquiry. Using thefirst communications terminal device CTD1, the first participant willtherefore subsequently attempt to place a call with the purpose ofconnecting to the second participant via the communications terminaldevice CTD2.

Triggered by the completion of the dialing process, or by the selectionof the second participant's telephone number from a caller list, a callsetup request for the first communications terminal devices CTD1 issignaled to the first branch exchange PBX1. The branch exchange PBX1notifies the first computer device CD1 of this request via thecomputer-telephone integration coupling CTI1. Running on this computerdevice is an on-going process, not yet described in greater detail, thatuses the incoming information to analyze which windows are currentlyactive and which of the active windows has input focus on the firstcomputer device CD1. In the present case, this is the process with theprocess window P1. In the current example, the subject line of thee-mail is now read and transmitted to the first branch exchange PBX1from this process window P1.

After receiving this information, the first branch exchange PBX1 nowestablishes a connection to the second branch exchange PBX2, or also toa second communications terminal device CTD2. This is a call-setupsignaling connection with which the usual information required to set upa call is exchanged, and the subject line determined on the computerdevice CD1 is also transmitted as reproducible information. Preferably,the transmission is hereby performed in an optional element of thesignaling connection.

Based on the incoming signal, the branch exchange PBX2 now forwards thecal-setup request to the second communications terminal device CTD2. Onthis device, the incoming connection-setup request is subsequentlysignaled to the second participant by the customary ring tone andoptical signals, e.g., blinking of a LED (light emitting diode) ordisplay on a display unit DISP.

In addition to this, the transmitted reproducible information, i.e., theoriginal subject line of the email, is shown on the display unit DISP.This occurs already during the setup or signaling phase of thecommunications connection, and thus before this user data connection isactually relayed.

Furthermore, the information to be sent out can also be transmitted tothe second computer device CD2 by the second branch exchange PBX2 viathe second computer-telephone installation-coupling CTI2, so that thesubject line of the original email can likewise be displayed on thiscomputer device via the display window OUTPUT. The second participanttherefore has the advantage of at least being able to read the subjectline of the original email on one of his two terminal devices CTD2 andCD2 before he actually accepts the telephone call. He is thus alreadyable to determine the actual context of the ensuing telephone call, sothat there is no need for the participants to have a lengthy verbalconversation regarding what the following discussion taking place on thecommunications terminal devices CTD1 and CTD2 is about.

The output to the display unit DISP or the display window OUTPUT canhereby be adjusted individually for the respective displaying terminaldevice, in this case CTD2 and/or CD2. For example, for a display unitDISP of the communications terminal device CTD2, the number ofdisplayable text passages is generally clearly limited, possibly makingit necessary for the transmitted information to be shortened. Thisshortening can, for example, be performed in the second branch exchangePBX2, since this device possibly knows the output capacities of theconfigured communications terminal devices. On the other hand, a displaywindow OUTPUT on the computer device CD2 normally has an additionalspectrum of output options. For example, an output can consist ofseveral lines or even be enhanced with multimedia or graphics content.

Alternatively to the shown embodiment, the call-setup signaling can alsobe performed using well-known transmission methods via the telephonecircuitry TC and the branch exchanges PBX1, PBX2, although thetransmission of the reproducible information takes place via a dataconnection that is to be established parallel to it via a local networkLAN. In such a case, a protocol can be of proprietary nature or anexisting protocol can be appropriately expanded for exchanginginformation between two computer devices CD1 and CD2. When thereproducible information is received, it can be sent out to the secondcomputer device CD2 or, via the computer-telephone integration couplingCTI1, to the second communications terminal device CTD2.

Transmission via a data connection is therefore particularlyadvantageous in that, within the context of data transmissions, forevery type of media to be transmitted, the specific protocols orprotocol elements already exist and can be used within the context ofthe method according to the invention.

In FIG. 2 various views of a process window are shown. Using theseviews, the following discussion should describe which kind ofinformation can be transmitted, for example, to the secondcommunications terminal device CTD2. In the first example according toFIG. 2A, an output window W1 is shown in which any type of content isshown. Furthermore, the output window W1 has a header, as is customaryfor normal user interface window applications of a computer device. Theheader hereby comprises a textual content, which is indicated in thefigure only by “XXXX”. In the figure, this character string is calledthe text field T1.

The header or the content of the text field T1 can preferably beevaluated for transmission, since a header normally concisely summarizesthe content that is shown in output window W1. It is also advantageousthat a header is able to show only a limited number of characters andthat this number of characters is possibly similar in magnitude to thedisplay capacity in a display unit of a telephone-communicationsterminal device. Consequently, there is preferably no need to convert orfurther shorten the information to be transmitted, although, ifnecessary, this can be done.

FIG. 2B shows a conventional computer device user interface F2 in whichvarious labels and various text fields that are provided for an outputare shown. In the figure, the labels are marked “Label1”, “Label2”, and“Label3”. The text fields are called T2, T3, and T4, wherein the contentof the text fields is indicated merely by “XXXX”, as in the previousexample. For example, Label1 could indicate that text field T2 containsan email address of a sender's email. Label2 can hereby indicate thecontent of text field T3, which, in this field, for example, shows thesubject matter of an email. In the text field T4, for example, the bodyof an email is shown. For the method according to the invention, in sucha case it is assumed that a subject line specified in the text field T3is especially relevant for helping the participant receiving the call toquickly and easily understand and grasp the context of the followingcommunications connection. The content of the text field T3 couldtherefore be transmitted as reproducible information. Alternatively,however, from the text field T4, some content could also be extractedthat describes the topic of the displayed email and could thereforepreferably be transmitted as reproducible information. An extractionfrom a longer text field can thus be performed based on expertsystem-related and rule-based analyses.

Alternatively, an extraction can also be made based on a user-selectionof a section in a text field. This is shown schematically in FIG. 2C. Aselection is hereby shown in customary user interfaces by inverting thescript and the background color or by using a dotted frame. A selectioncan be made by keyboard entries, for example, by pressing the shift key,and by moving the cursor, or by mouse actions, for example, by pressingand holding down one of the mouse buttons and by moving the mousepointer.

In FIG. 2C, a text field T5, which also contains several lines of text,is shown on a user interface F3. It is hereby assumed that a portion ofthe text field has been selected by the first participant. The selectionis hereby shown within a dotted-line rectangle and called selection S1.This selection can now be transmitted as reproducible information to asecond participant, either completely or after further editing.

FIG. 2D now shows a corresponding process if purely textual content isnot involved, but instead, either alternatively or additionally,graphics content. A graphics field GF that contains severalvector-related or bitmap-related pieces of information is hereby shownin the process window F4. Also in this case, the complete view can beextracted and transmitted as reproducible information, or it can beevaluated as a selection S2, shown as a dotted-line rectangle, by whicha portion of the image is selected. This selection S2 can now beextracted as reproducible information for a transmission. Prior to atransmission, however, the selected graphics can preferably be recoded,so that a representation of the graphics is achieved that isparticularly well suited for transmission, particularly with respect tothe bandwidth requirements.

Whereas the shown embodiments were previously optimized merely by acoupling between a desktop computer and a telephone terminal device, forthe first participant, instead of a computer device CD1, any other typeof terminal device can be coupled from which information can beextracted. For example, as the terminal device specified as the secondterminal device according to the invention, one can use a televisionreceiver that is equipped, for example, with a video text function. Forthe shown video text content, provision can be made to extract a portionof the video text content when a communications connection is initiatedand to transmit it as reproducible information. This can, for example,be a type of title of the video text page or a new selection made by theuser. Alternatively, in the case of a television, the television imagecan also be analyzed. For example, a still image can be generated and,from this, a portion of extracted graphics can then be transmitted asreproducible information. Furthermore, certain television programs arecharacterized by displaying the latest news in a type of scrollingticker. Also here, it can be possible to extract the content of ascrolling ticker and transmit it graphically or, after conversion,textually as reproducible information to a second participant.

A coupling to another terminal device, such as, a washing machine oranother household appliance, is also conceivable, for example, when aservice technician is called, a type of error code for an occurringproblem can already be determined as reproducible information.

Embodiments of the invention may also be characterized by the fact that,in certain situations, the communications connection does not need to beaccepted or put through at all by the second participant, since thereproducible information is perhaps already sufficient to satisfy thefirst or second participant. This can be the case when, for example, thesecond participant has sent a clearly formulated question by email, andthe first participant selects a text considered to be a response in sucha way that this text is transmitted as reproducible information.

Analogous to this, if the second participant is unavailable, thetransmitted reproducible information can be evaluated for a compiledcontact list of missed calls in such a way that the reproducibleinformation, along with the time of the call and the sender of the call,is displayed to the second participant in the contact list. Furthermore,the transmitted reproducible information can also be used for ananswering machine in which, for each bit of stored spoken information,the reproducible information of the spoken message can be properlyallocated and stored, so that the reproducible information can be sentout by means of menu-controlled access on a display or by a generatedvoice output, thereby making it possible to conveniently search storedspoken information without listening to the spoken information.

In an advantageous embodiment, provision can also be made for thetransmission of the reproducible information to be deactivated per callor possibly also for an indefinite period of time, since transmittingthe reproducible information to the second participant is perhaps notalways the intent of the first participant.

In particular, it is advantageous to use the invention for so-calledmulti-line appearances, call groups, or so-called boss-secretaryhook-ups. These so-called performance features are characterized by thefact that, when a call goes in to a first person, it is simultaneouslycommunicated to at least a second person by a short ring tone, LEDblinking, and/or a notification in a display, so that the second personcan take the call. Normally, the call is accepted by both lifting thetelephone receiver and pressing a button or selecting a menu item. Themethod is therefore particularly advantageous because the reproducibleinformation can also be shown on the second person's terminal device. Itis therefore simple for the second person to decide whether or not toaccept the call.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for operating a communicationsconnection between a first communications terminal device and a secondcommunications terminal device comprising: the first communicationsterminal device sending a call setup request for establishing thecommunications connection with the second communications terminaldevice; notifying a first computer device associated with the firstcommunications terminal device of the call setup request forestablishing the communications connection with the secondcommunications terminal device, the call setup request being triggeredby the first communications terminal device and being sent prior to thefirst computer device being notified of the call setup request; thefirst computer device analyzing active applications in response to thenotifying of the call setup request; the first computer devicedetermining an application of the active applications that is an inputfocus for the first computer device; the first computer devicedetermining reproducible information from the input focus; attempting toestablish the communications connection between the first communicationsterminal device and the second communications terminal device;transmitting the reproducible information to at least one of the secondcommunications terminal device and a second computer device associatedwith a user that is also associated with the second communicationsterminal device during the attempting to establish the communicationsconnection between the first communications terminal device and thesecond communications terminal device; and at least one of the secondcommunications terminal device and the second computer device outputtingthe reproducible information prior to establishing the communicationsconnection between the first communications terminal device and thesecond communications terminal device.
 2. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: the first communications terminal device sending the callsetup request to a public branch exchange; the public branch exchangeperforming the notifying of the first computer device of the call setuprequest; the first computer device transmitting the reproducibleinformation to the public branch exchange; the public branch exchangeperforming the attempting to establish the communications connectionbetween the first communications terminal device and the secondcommunications terminal device; and the public branch exchangeperforming the transmitting of the reproducible information to thesecond communications terminal device during the establishing of thecommunications connection between the first communications terminaldevice and the second communications terminal device.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the public branch exchange is a first public branchexchange, the method further comprising: the first public branchexchange forwarding the call setup request to a second public branchexchange for establishing the communications connection; the firstpublic branch exchange forwarding the reproducible information to atleast one of the second public branch exchange and the second computerdevice to transmit the reproducible information to the secondcommunications terminal device; the second public branch exchangeforwarding the call setup request to the second communications terminaldevice; and the second public branch exchange transmitting thereproducible information to the second computer device associated withthe second communications terminal device.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein the transmitting of the reproducible information to the secondcommunications terminal device is performed within a context ofsignaling for establishing the communications connection between thefirst communications terminal device and the second communicationsterminal device, wherein the context of signaling corresponds to aD-channel of an Integrated Services Digital Network, signaling packagesaccording to H.323 format, or signaling packages according to SessionInitiation Protocol (“SIP”).
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein thedetermining of the application of the active applications that is theinput focus comprises selecting the application from the activeapplications such that the application was active when the firstcomputer device was notified of the call request and such that an activewindow associated with the selected application is displayed via thefirst computer device when the first computer device is notified of thecall request, and the method further comprises: capturing thereproducible information from the selected application; and selectingthe second communications terminal device from a plurality of devicessuch that the reproducible information is outputtable by the selectedsecond communications terminal device according to a format of thecaptured reproducible information.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein theapplication that is the input focus is an application for communicatingwith emails, and wherein the reproducible information that is output atthe second communications terminal device is content of an email orcontent of an email attachment.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising withdrawing the attempt to establish the communicationsconnection between the first communications terminal device and thesecond communications terminal device following the secondcommunications terminal device outputting the reproducible information.8. The method of claim 1 further comprising the second communicationsterminal device refusing a call associated with the call setup request.9. The method of claim 1 wherein the reproducible information is atleast one of a character string, an electronic graphics image, and avideo and wherein the reproducible information is received by the secondcommunications terminal device and wherein the reproducible informationis displayed by the second communications terminal device prior to thecommunications connection being established and wherein thecommunications connection is a telephone call.
 10. The method of claim 1wherein the first communications terminal device is coupled to ahousehold appliance and the reproducible information is a type of errorcode generated by the household appliance.
 11. The method of claim 1further comprising redirecting the communications connection from thesecond communications terminal device to another communications terminaldevice based on the transmitted reproducible information.
 12. The methodof claim 1 further comprising: providing a rule-based system in which atleast one rule is defined for a piece of comparative information; andallocating an action applicable to the communications connection to theat least one rule; comparing content of the transmitted reproducibleinformation with the comparative information of the at least one rule;and upon a determination that the comparative information matches atleast a portion of the transmitted information, performing the actionallocated to the at least one rule for the communications connection.13. The method of claim 1 further comprising altering the reproducibleinformation according to an output option of the second communicationsterminal device.
 14. The method of claim 1 wherein the secondcommunications terminal device outputting the reproducible informationby displaying the reproducible information on a display device of thesecond communications terminal device prior to the communicationsconnection being established.
 15. A communications system comprising: afirst communications terminal device for operating a communicationsconnection between the first communications terminal device and at leastone second communications terminal device; a computer device; the firstcommunications terminal device sending a call setup request for the atleast one second communications terminal device to establish thecommunications connection with the at least one second communicationsterminal device; the first communications terminal device triggering anotification of a call setup request directed to the at least one secondcommunications terminal device, the notification to be provided to thecomputer device; the computer device receiving the notification of thecall setup request after the first communications terminal device sendsthe call setup request; the computer device analyzing activeapplications and determining an application of the active applicationsthat is an input focus for the computer device in response to thenotification of the call setup request; the computer device determiningreproducible information from the input focus; the first communicationsterminal device attempting to establish the communications connectionbetween the first communications terminal device and the at least onesecond communications terminal device; the at least one secondcommunications terminal device receiving the reproducible informationduring the attempt to establish the communications connection betweenthe first communications terminal device and the at least one secondcommunications terminal device; and the at least one secondcommunications terminal device outputting the reproducible informationprior to establishing the communications connection between the firstcommunications terminal device and the at least one secondcommunications terminal device.
 16. The communications system of claim15 further comprising a first public branch exchange and a second publicbranch exchange; and wherein the first communications terminal devicesends the call setup request to the first public branch exchange;wherein the first public branch exchange provides the notification tothe computer device of the call setup request; wherein the computerdevice transmits the reproducible information to the first public branchexchange; and wherein the first public branch exchange transmits thereproducible information to the at least one second communicationsterminal device during the attempt to establish the communicationsconnection between the first communications terminal device and the atleast one second communications terminal device.
 17. The communicationssystem of claim 16 wherein the computer device is a first computerdevice and the at least one second communications terminal device iscomprised of a second computer device and a telephone associated with auser that is also associated with the second computer device, andwherein the second public branch exchange transmits the reproducibleinformation to the second computer device and wherein the call setuprequest is directed to the telephone and the reproducible information isreceived by both the telephone and the second computer device.
 18. Thecommunications system of claim 15 wherein upon a determination that thecommunications connection is not completed at the at least one secondcommunications terminal device, the reproducible information isevaluated and placed in a contact list of missed calls such that thereproducible information is displayed in the contact list of missedcalls for the at least one second communications terminal device. 19.The communications system of claim 15 further comprising a thirdcommunications terminal device, wherein the third communicationsterminal device receives the reproducible information during the attemptto establish the communications connection between the firstcommunications terminal device and the at least one secondcommunications terminal device, and wherein the third communicationsterminal device outputting the reproducible information prior toestablishing the communications connection between the firstcommunications terminal device and the at least one secondcommunications terminal device.
 20. The communications system of claim15 wherein the reproducible information is in a format selected from thegroup consisting of a character string, an electronic graphics image,and a video.
 21. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicationsconnection is a telephone call.
 22. The method of claim 2 wherein thefirst computer device has a Computer Telephony Integration (“CTI”)connection with the public branch exchange and the public branchexchange performs the notifying of the first computer device of the callsetup request via the CTI connection and the first computer devicetransmits the reproducible information to the public branch exchange viathe CTI connection.
 23. The system of claim 16 wherein the computerdevice has a Computer Telephony Integration (“CTI”) connection with thefirst public branch exchange and the first public branch exchangeperforms the notifying of the computer device of the call setup requestvia the CTI connection and the computer device transmits thereproducible information to the first public branch exchange via the CTIconnection.